Social Justice Discussion Group meets the first Thursday of every month at 5pm. All are welcome, whether you have attended before or not. We will watch several short videos together and discuss them. Join us! See Zoom link at bottom.
This month we will explore Asian-American experiences, which is a really big topic, and yet finding videos to share (other than current news clips) has been difficult. This is telling in itself.
Asia encompasses 48 different countries, if you don’t include Pacific Islanders (AAPI – Asian American Pacific Islanders). There are so many different languages, cultures, religions, cuisines, and histories involved, and yet many Americans are unable to distinguish the differences. Take a look at the Stop AAPI Hate National Report. One thing that jumped out at me was that our state is #3 on the list of top states for incidents of Asian-American hate, after CA and NY. Of course one factor is that we have a larger Asian-American population than many states, but still.
Ultimately I found some excellent videos, most of them long, so we will watch excerpts from the following (I highly recommend watching them in their entirety when you have time):
Asian Americans face a wave of discrimination during the pandemic (PBS News Hour) A succinct introduction to the current moment (longer version available on PBS.org). More PBS videos on this topic.
Why we need to talk about anti-Asian hate (blog and documentary) by Eugene Lee Yang. What started off as a personal reflection became a fully produced documentary including many voices, and yet still only scratching the surface of this huge topic. If you watch only one thing, choose this.
Misogyny against Asian Women (The TryPod Episode 102) Eugene Lee Yang has a conversation with four Asian women he knows and has worked with (three on the above documentary). This is an unscripted conversation presenting the personal experiences of the participants.
Race in America: History Matters with Erika Lee & Helen Zia (Washington Post Live). Erika Lee is an author (The Making of Asian America, among other titles) and university professor; Helen Zia is a journalist and activist for Asian American and LGBTQ rights. Both are very knowledgeable and well-spoken, making this an excellent video to watch.
Race in America: Rise in Anti-Asian Violence with actors Daniel Dae Kim and Daniel Wu (Washington Post Live) Mr. Kim and Mr. Wu have been using their platform as actors to raise awareness about anti-Asian violence and have been criticized for some of their actions. They emphasize here the importance of allyship and the need for everyone to learn (themselves included) and work together to fight racism towards all marginalized people.
Recommended resources:
We created a webpage tile of Asian and Asian-American resources and started a new materials list called Asian and Asian-American Voices.
Additional library materials on Social Justice: The racial divide, antiracism and reflection – many of these also available through the library’s Overdrive and Hoopla e-collections. See also Social and Racial Justice for a larger, growing list of library resource on this topic, and Racial Justice Resources for other internet resources.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86801763865?pwd=dFVjQ2dqbjUxaytZNTJJNkxPTTd0QT09
Meeting ID: 868 0176 3865
Passcode: 914067